Early Rensselaer County History

On February 7, I79I, a subdivision of the original Albany County was made and given the
name of one of the famous families of the State, Rensselaer. Located where the Adirondacks
and the Berkshires meet, combining the beauty of both, without the ruggedness of either,
at the great cross routes of the State, nature combined to make the region the seat of a
great center of commerce and trade. It is the central county along the eastern border of
the State. The western boundary rests on the Hudson River for a distance of nearly
thirty-five miles. Back from the fertile valley of the river extends a much broken plateau
with masses of verdure clad hills, numerous lakes, with the finest of agricultural area
interspersed. Its area is about 663 square miles and its population, according to the
census of 1920, was 113,129. It was the seventh most populous civil division of the State,
while the value of its agricultural and industrial products ranks it even higher.

The
Hudson was the route by which the explorer arrived, and a constantly used highway since.
Man made another of these waterways to and from the west in the Barge Canal; its outlet
being in this county. The Indian had his trails from the north and east through
Rensselaer; their place is taken by the best of modern railroads and highways.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that possibly in no part of the United States
did settlement begin so promptly after discovery. Some of Hudson's crew, won by the
natural advantages of this region, persuaded Hollanders to send a vessel to trade the
Dutch products for the Indians' possessions and furs. In 1610 a vessel came; in 1614 a
license was granted to fur traders to make four trips in three years; and in that same
year Hendrick Christiaensen removed the debris from the ruins of a French fort on Castle
Island, erected in 1540, and established there a trading post. In five years from its
discovery, and six years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, there was a settlement
where grew the future Albany. In 1623, French Protestants in Amsterdam, known as Walloons,
were ready to set sail for Virginia, but persuaded by the Dutch West India Company, they
came to New York and eighteen families made their way up the Hudson and located in part on
the land opposite Castle Island, forming the first settlement in Rensselaer County.

The greater part of the county was included in the patent of Killian Van Rensselaer,
given November 19, 1629. The first purchase of the land from the Indians was completed on
July 27, 1630. Van Rensselaer was a wealthy diamond and pearl dealer, and used his wealth
in the endeavor to build for himself in the new country an almost feudal estate over which
he would be the Lord Proprietor. The lands were settled only under lease, upon the same
rules of tenure in force at Albany and other parts of the Hudson territory, and led to the
same difficulties in the collection of rents.

The settlement of the county did not proceed without the hardships and dangers which
troubled all the outlying districts of the State. In the French and Indian wars the
northern part of the county was repeatedly ravaged and the pioneers driven from their
homes. The Battle of Bennington, or Walloomsac, as it should be named, was fought in
Rensselaer, and led to the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga. In the Civil War the first
troops from the North to tread the soil of Virginia were from this county, and it is said
that no community, in proportion to its population, sent so many of its youth in the World
War as did Troy, the principal city of Rensselaer.